Pegaso Online University has created the School of Urban and Environmental Regeneration, with the aim of training professionals in the field of planning and management actions related to the intervention on the city, the environment and the territory, with particular attention to the issues of sustainability and regeneration. The development of today's cities, with their problems of degraded neighborhoods, under-utilized areas and abandoned buildings, is closely linked to the ability to reinvent the use of space, connecting different interests and opportunities but also involving specialized and diversified skills. There is an increasing demand of these skills, both in the field of professions and in public and private organisations.

The project idea is linked to an ongoing initiative promoted by Bimed, in cooperation with Pegaso, aimed at the renewal of degraded urban spaces, through the contribution of local authorities, third sector associations, academies of the fine arts and upper secondary schools, in order to create a collaborative governance of common areas.

Thanks to the involvement of the social partners, the teachers and the students of the schools will contribute with their projects to redesign the areas making them more suitable to the expectations of the communities.

URBES project aims to transfer this innovative practice to European level, bringing together four upper secondary schools from different European countries (Italy, Romania, Greece and e Turkey) that, through Laboratories of urban regeneration, will develop close cooperation with public authorities and private parties operating in the urban planning sectors and energy management, and will share different modes of intervention.

Furthermore, the project aims to encourage the training on digital skills of teachers and students through the development of new training methodologies. Some innovative tools will be created:

  • an on-line course on "energy efficiency of urban areas" for the students;
  • an App for an European route;
  • guidelines for urban and environmental regeneration, to be disseminated in the European schools.

The innovative methodologies and tools will be spread through an effective dissemination plan and thanks to the realization of two multiplier events, one in Greece and the final one in Italy.

 

Thanks to the European platforms connected to the Erasmus+ Program, free access to the public in digital form of all intellectual outputs will be guaranteed, even after the end of the project, and the online course on energy efficiency will be made available for free as MOOC.

The project aims to promote mobility, in addition to virtual collaboration: 2 teachers for each school will participate in a course of a week in Italy while four exchanges will be organized for students in each partner country on urban and environmental changes. For each school 5 students will participate in each mobility, accompanied by a teacher.

URBES intends to promote the qualification needs of urban spaces and therefore the culture of beauty in the European context, through schools. And beauty is inclusion, interaction, participation, solidarity. The choice of identifying, by the school and the territory, a "degraded" space means defining the concept of "degradation" and reflecting on the connotations of spaces that, on the other hand, represent ideal places for the encounter between cultures.

The pillar is therefore the European Cultural Heritage seen as a common denominator among the nations for the creation of a new idea of active citizenship: URBES will connect different identities to promote the culture of meeting and confrontation, of visiting and sharing, of travelling and transferring good practices.

Coordinator: Università Telematica Pegaso

Partners:

Colegiul Vasile Lovinescu (Romania)

2nd Geniko Lykeio of Arta (Greece)

Kocasinan Anadolu Lisesi (Turkey)

Liceo artistico Sabatini Menna (Italy)

BIMED - Biennale delle arti e delle scienze del Mediterraneo (Italy)